<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial'; COLOR: #000000">
<DIV class=itemTitle style="MARGIN-TOP: 15px"><FONT face=Times><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 19.2pt" color=#c00000>From the ARRL
newsletter.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=itemTitle style="MARGIN-TOP: 15px"><FONT face=Times><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 19.2pt" color=#c00000></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV class=itemTitle style="MARGIN-TOP: 15px"><FONT face=Times><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 19.2pt" color=#c00000>In Brief...</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P class=default style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 10px; MARGIN-TOP: 8px"><FONT
size=5><B><IMG hspace=3 alt="" vspace=3
src="http://www3.arrl.org/nl/al/image/Solar%20Eruption%20(Magnetosphere).jpg"
width=150 align=left height=84>A "Grand Solar Minimum" may be approaching.</B> A
</FONT><A style='href: "http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-45584-3"'
target=_blank><FONT color=#0000ff size=5>juried research paper</FONT></A><FONT
size=5> in <I>Nature</I>, "Oscillations of the baseline of solar magnetic field
and solar irradiance on a millennial timescale," suggests that a "grand solar
minimum" -- similar to the legendary "Maunder Minimum" -- is approaching,
starting as early as next year and lasting for three solar cycles. That would be
bad news for HF enthusiasts already struggling with marginal conditions. As the
paper's abstract explains, "Recently discovered long-term oscillations of the
solar background magnetic field associated with double dynamo waves generated in
inner and outer layers of the Sun indicate that the solar activity is heading in
the next three decades (2019 - 2055) to a modern grand minimum similar to
Maunder one." As propagation buff and contester Frank Donovan, W3LPL, observed,
"It's very uncertain if this forecast is correct, but, as usual, the forecasts
of the next solar cycle are all over the map. Let's hope these scientists are
wrong."</FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>